1.
Doctor Who
TV-PG
Starring:
Directed By:
Graeme Harper, Euros Lyn, Douglas Mackinnon, James Strong, Rachel Talalay
English comedian, actor, presenter and writer Frank Skinner began his career as a stand-up comedian in 1987 and in 1991 claimed the prestigious ‘Perrier Award’ at the Edinburgh Festival. In between, he made his television debut in 1988. In 1991 again, he co-wrote and starred in a couple of episodes of Channel 4’s comedy variety show ‘Packet of Three’. In partnership with another comedian, writer and presenter David Baddiel, he created and hosted the comedy shows ‘Fantasy Football League’ (1994-2004) and ‘Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned’ (2000-2005). The two also collaborated with the English Rock band Lightning Seeds to write and perform the football song 'Three Lions' (1996). Individually, he became the host of television chat show titled ‘The Frank Skinner Show’ and presented its 9 series from 1995 to 2005 (on BBC One from 1995-1999 and then on ITV from 2000-2005). The show won him the 2001 ‘British Comedy Award’ for Best Comedy Entertainment Personality and is also widely considered to be the show that established the tone for the modern comedic chat show. During this time, he appeared in the TV movie documentaries ‘A Little Bit of Elvis’ (1998, also wrote) and ‘Frank Skinner on Frank Skinner’ (2001) too. Additionally, he also wrote and starred in the sitcoms like ‘Blue Heaven’ (1994) and ‘Shane’ (2004). His other works as an actor include television series ‘Bunch of Five’ (1992, 1 episode, also its writer), 'Packing Them In' (1992, 3 episodes, 1 episode writer) and 'Time Gentlemen Please' (2000-2001, 2 episodes) as well as TV movies 'Woodcock' (1994), ‘The Flint Street Nativity’ (1999) and 'Cinderella' (2000).
Frank Skinner continued to host shows and presented three series of BBC comedy talk show ‘Opinionated’ (2010-2011, 18 episodes), seven seasons of another BBC comedy talk show ‘Room 101’ (2012-2018, 57 episodes), one season of comedy show ‘Frank Skinner on Demand with...’ (2015-2016, 52 episodes) as well as seven series of Sky Arts channel’s reality competition show ‘Portrait/Landscape Artist of the Year’ (2013-2018, 35 episodes). He also turned writer for ‘Frank Skinner on Demand with...’ and ‘Room 101’.
Apart from these, he also hosted the game show ‘Don't Ask Me Ask Britain’ (2017, 6 episodes) and turned presenter for ‘Frank Skinner on George Formby’ (2011 TV movie documentary), ‘Frank Skinner on Muhammad Ali’ (2017 TV movie documentary), ‘Boswell & Johnson's Scottish Road Trip’ (2020 TV series documentary) and ‘Wordsworth & Coleridge: Road Trip’ (2021 TV miniseries documentary). Additionally, he narrated the 2009 TV miniseries ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ and the 2012 TV movie documentary ‘Fairport Convention, Who Knows Where the Time Goes?’. In 2013, he appeared as himself/team captain in BBC One’s comedy panel game show ‘I Love My Country’ (8 episodes) and in 2015 appeared as a contestant in Dave channel’s comedy panel game show ‘Taskmaster’.
He also continued to work as an actor and acted in an episode each of television series ‘Uncle Max’ (2008), ‘Doctor Who: Dark Eyes 1’ (2014), ‘Doctor Who’ (2014), ‘National Treasure’ (2016) and ‘Urban Myths’ (2018, also wrote it). He also appeared as himself in the comedy drama movie ‘Huge’ (2010) and acted in the TV movies ‘The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot’ (2013) and ‘Rotters’ (2015).
In his career, Frank Skinner has also worked a lot for radio and amongst his most known radio shows is the award winning ‘Saturday Morning Breakfast Show’ (‘The Frank Skinner Show’) on Absolute Radio (2009-present). He also wrote and starred in the comedy drama series ‘Don’t Start’ (2011-2016) and hosted the comedy panel show ‘The Rest is History’ (2014), both for BBC Radio 4. His 2006 FIFA World Cup coverage podcast along with David Baddie won a nomination at the Sony Radio Academy Awards. In 2020, he launched another podcast called ‘Frank Skinner's Poetry Podcast’ wherein he discusses his favourite poems. The podcast, which airs on Absolute Radio, has received positive reviews. For his work on radio, he was inducted into the ‘Radio Academy Hall of Fame’ in 2015.
